Gallery • 3 Photos

courtesy of Seth Roberts

The victorious World Scholar's team posing for a photo with their awards. (Left to right) JD Ensor, Dalton Monague, Samantha Buckman, Maleeha Coleburn, Richard Zhang, Seth Roberts, Brendan McCann, Garrett Wiehler, Laura Glawe, Burke Roberts, Hugh Norko, Emily Barbagallo, and Kasal Smaha.

The Linganore World Scholar’s team emerged victorious from the Washington, D.C. round of the World Scholar’s Cup, bearing over thirty awards.

Four teams of three Lancers each attended the competition February 27-28, 2016, competing in four events: the Team Debate, the Cooperative Essay Writing Contest, the Scholar’s Bowl, and the Scholar’s Challenge. Lancers swept the Team Debate, Scholar’s Bowl, and the arts, history, science, and special areas of the Scholar’s Challenge.

Teams gathered together at the end of the second day of competition for an awards ceremony, with event coordinators and parents attending as well. Over one-hundred awards were given, with more than two dozen being granted to the Linganore teams. The following is by no means a comprehensive list.

Maleeha Coleburn, Burke Roberts (a Tuscarora student), and Laura Glawe took first place in the Team Debate contest. Each team took place in three debates, with topics─known to those competing as resolutions─drawn from the six subject areas of art, history, literature, science, social studies, and a special area.

Brendan McCann, JD Ensor, and Garrett Wiehler took first place in the Scholar’s Bowl competition. The Scholar’s Bowl is a quiz show where World Scholar’s teams answer questions to gain points in a bid to win over their rivals, much like Jeopardy.

The Scholar’s Challenge is a one-hundred and twenty question Scantron test with twenty questions per subject area, and is widely considered to be the most difficult of the four competitions making up the World Scholar’s Cup. Burke Roberts placed the highest in the art section; Kasal Smaha had the highest score in the history section; and Hugh Norko took both the science and special area sections of the test. The best scoring team overall in the Challenge was comprised of Samantha Buckman, Dalton Mongue, and Hugh Norko.

Burke Roberts, a Tuscarora student and daughter of team coach Seth Roberts, joined the Linganore team because her school does not participate in the World Scholar’s program. Ms. Roberts won the individually-scored debate, individual total overall score (a measure of how well a Scholar did in all four categories), and the School Top Scholar awards.

Also up for grabs was a singular DaVinci Award, which is given to the Scholar that has proven to be the best all-around. Junior Emily Barbagallo was given this prestigious award.

In addition to the trophies and medals earned by the teams, all twelve Lancers in attendance were recognized by the event coordinators as having qualified for the World Scholar’s Cup Bangkok Global Round in late June. These students are Brendan McCann, Burke Roberts, Dalton Monague, Emily Barbagallo, Garrett Wiehler, Hugh Norko, James Ensor, Kasal Smaha, Laura Glawe, Maleeha Coleburn, Richard Zhang, and Samantha Buckman.

At the end of the awards ceremony, Mr. Roberts gathered the team members together to congratulate them.

“I am so incredibly proud of all of you,” he said.